Master Paints in main final of Royal Marketing Polo Cup
Master Paints/ EFU Insurance through to the main final while Diamond Paints seals the berth of subsidiary final here at the Lahore Polo Club (LPC) ground on Thursday
Efu Insurance thrashed Army by 7-4½ in the first encounter of the day. Hamza Mawaz turned the hero of the match as he struck a quartet. Edward Bannireve contributed 2 goals and Sufi Farooq struck 1 goal to complete the tally for the victors. For Army team, which had half goal handicap advantage, Luis Mighal Duggan struck all the four goals but his efforts were too less for his team to register victory.
Luis Mighal struck the first goal from Army to take 1-0 lead but that did not lasted long as it was equalized by Hamza Mawaz and Edward then provided Master Paints 2-1 lead.Second chukker was equally poised as no goal was scored in the second chukker while Hamza converted a 30-yard penalty to further increase Master Paints lead to 3-1. Army then bounced back well by scoring a brace to finish the third chukker at 3-3 draw.
Both the teams fought well to earn the lead in the fourth and last chukker Army started the fourth chukker well by converting a 30-yarder which gave them 4-3 lead. Master Paints then changed the entire match by hammering four goals in a row and registered an impressive 7-4 victory. Hamza banged in two goals and Edward and Sufi Farooq one goal each. Hissam Ali Hyder and Bilal supervised the match as field umpires.
Three-star Eulogio Celestino guided Diamond Paints to a well-deserving 6½-4 and marked the victory over BBJ Pipes in the second encounter of the day to book the subsidiary final seat. Omar Asjad Malhi contributed 2 goals and Mir Huzaifa Ahmed struck 1 goal for the winning side. Ahmed Ali Tiwana and Geoffredo pumped in two goals each for the losing side.
Diamond Paints stamped their authority right from the start and banged in a brace to take 2-0 lead. In the dying moments of the chukker, BBJ Pipes converted one to reduce the margin to 2-1. The second chukker totally belonged to Diamond Paints, who hammered a hat-trick to take healthy 5-1 lead. BBJ Pipes bounced back in the third chukker and slammed in two tremendous goals to close the gap to 5-3.
BBJ Pipes converted one more goal in the fourth and last chukker to further reduce the gap but they still lost the match by 5-4. But Diamond Paints banged in one more to enhance their lead to 6-4 which remained intact till the final hooter, declaring Diamond Paints winners of the match. Mumtaz Abbas Niazi and Raja Arslan Najeeb officiated the match as field umpires.
Today, the only match will be conducted between Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) and Master Paints Black.
